Keyboard home to disease-carrying vermin

New York: The next time you decide to eat at your desk, think again – it may be a source of disease-carrying vermin that can cause food poisoning.

These germs survive on the breadcrumbs and other food that drop inside of your keyboard while you snack, and then transmit harmful bacteria like E. coli, coliforms and enterobacteria through their droppings.

The Royal Society of Chemistry says dirty workspaces are real health hazards.

Workers who fail to keep their desk area clean and crumb-free can get sick simply by typing on a pooped-on keyboard and then picking up a sandwich or piece of fruit with their unwashed hands, the researchers warn.

They warned that mice droppings could also fall between the keys as the rodents snoop around.

"You always have to be careful," The New York Daily News quoted Eiesha Earlington, a financial planner who lives in Woodbridge, N.J.

"On some desks you can see the germs and the dirt creates a little fingerprint, and that’s just gross," she said.

She added: "It’s disgusting. I usually don’t like to have anybody else at my desk except for me.

"I’m definitely the one with the worst desk in the office," said Dawn Bruent, 40, a claims adjustor who lives in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. "I found ants on my desk once.

"I eat at my desk every day and spend about seven hours at my keyboard.